


Walking with Ghosts

by Legacy_Scarlettpeony (Scarlettpeony)



Series: The 'To You, An Admirer' Series [9]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-27
Updated: 2010-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28216389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlettpeony/pseuds/Legacy_Scarlettpeony
Summary: Arthur takes his daughter on a walk in the woods.
Relationships: Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: The 'To You, An Admirer' Series [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064168
Kudos: 2





	Walking with Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the same verse as In Her Father’s Image. I was inspired by Arthur talking to Gwen about the woods in 3x07.

The sound of a bird taking flight caused Linnet’s head to snap to look in the direction of the noise. Her wavy dark blonde locks jumped up with her before settling down immediately as her entire body stopped still. Through wide brown eyes, the white cloud-light that was visible through the tree branches reflected white sparkles in her eyes.  
  
Yet the seven-year-old would never admit to her father that the sound she heard had momentarily frightened her. She wouldn’t even admit it had _startled_ her.  
  
Arthur looked in the direction his daughter was staring. Up in the branches where the bird had flown from there was a nest in clear vision. It was almost time for the birds to have their yearly brood and they were building their safe-house.  
  
Linnet sighed with relief but jumped again when her father gently reached down to touch her shoulder and brush her hair away from her face.  
  
“The noises in this forest can be quite startling,” he told the little girl, kneeling down before her.”But it’s good that you take note of every sound.”  
  
The child pouted proudly and raised her chin, “I wasn’t startled.”  
  
Her words were so firm that it reminded Arthur of him when he was younger. He never wanted to admit that he was nervous or scared of anything, even when the threats he faces were truly dangerous. Linnet was no different. She would do anything rather than admit to him that one bird had scared her and he knew why; she felt ashamed that such a tiny thing scared her.  
  
Arthur sighed and stood straight again.  
  
“Have you had enough of walking?” he asked her diplomatically. She made no other reply than a tiny shrug of her shoulders. It made him smile. “Shall we go back to camp? You mother is still waiting on this firewood.”  
  
He raised his armful of wood slightly and nodded towards the eleven sticks resting across Linnet’s small arms.  
  
Linnet shrugged more clearly this time, “If you want. I’d happily walk here for the rest of the day... maybe even the night.”  
  
Another snap as a bird landed on a branch. The little princess refused to look this time although she still jumped slightly and clutched her twigs to her.  
  
She looked back to her father.  
  
“Come on,” she said walking past him. “We don’t want to keep Mama waiting.”  
  
“Of course not,” Arthur said amusedly.  
  
He followed on, quickly catching up to Linnet’s pace. After a while Linnet was making small bounds and leaps to keep up with his pace. It was a little game they sometimes played in which they both tried to ‘outpace’ the other. Arthur knew Linnet was at a disadvantage due to her short legs but she always managed to keep up with him.  
  
Eventually Arthur slowed down again.  
  
“I’ll carry those sticks,” he said, taking them from her arms.  
  
Linnet pushed them up onto the pile he was already carrying up said nothing. Instead she used her free arms to fold them across her chest defensively. A few more odd coos from the birds, snaps beneath her feet and winds hitting the leaves unnerved her.  
  
Arthur wanted to say something to set her mind at rest.  
  
“You know I used to come to these woods often when I was your age?” he began.  
  
Linnet looked up to him, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“My father would bring me here,” he explained softly, trying to remember those days. “He would witter on about the Knight’s Code and the duty of a king to his people... and all I could think about was whether that sound was a bandit or a gust of wind, or whether another sound was a bird or a monster...”  
  
“Why did he bring you _here_?” Linnet pouted, looking around at the unremarkable and sinister forest. She asked another question, “Why have _you_ brought me here?”  
  
“It’s just something from my childhood I wanted to share with you,” Arthur replied with a smile.  
  
Both of Linnet’s eyebrows went up this time.  
  
“And you chose something scary?” she said in a tone which reminded Arthur so much of Gwen when she was not amused. “Couldn’t you have chosen something... less creepy?”  
  
Arthur burst out laughing.  
  
“Unfortunately there is very little from my childhood that wasn’t a little scary,” he told Linnet. “My father thought it would do me good to expose me to the more frightening aspects of life. I don’t agree with his view but...”  
  
“Good job I’m not scared then,” Linnet interrupted.

A snake jumped out at them at that moment. The little girl screamed and immediately clutched her father’s side.  
  
There were only two things in the world that truly terrified Linnet: mice and snakes. When the royal apartments were invested with a mice population, Arthur had got down on his hands and knees to drive one of the tiny creatures out from under Linnet’s bed. It had crawled over foot as she fished around for her slippers that morning and it left her with an irrational fear of them ever since. Her fear of snakes was more basic – she just found them scary.  
  
The sight of the creature didn’t bother Arthur in the slightest and he relished sometimes in being his little girl’s hero by his ability to just take a stick and gently move it away.  
  
Arthur looked down to her afterwards and smiled.  
  
“That’s the scariest thing in these woods,” he told her. “And it’s not even venomous.”  
  
Linnet sheepishly looked down at her feet where Arthur had laid down the rest of the firewood. She was embarrassed by the fuss she had made.  
  
He picked up the firewood again, tucked it under his arm and used his free hand to hold Linnet’s. She took it quite happily. He squeezed it affectionately and went on as before:  
  
“This forest isn’t significant to me because of my father, though.”  
  
“No?”  
  
“No,” he repeated, and he looked down at Linnet until she looked up at him. He then looked away, tilted his head and went on with a smile. “I came to this forest a few times with you mother. We rode through here when we went to rescue your Uncle Elyan from King Cenred... and for a short while we actually lived out here.”  
  
Linnet pulled an unappealing face and looked around the forest again.  
  
Arthur grinned at her reaction, “That was how your mother felt. She doesn’t like forests, particularly this one.”  
  
“Then why did we come here?”  
  
“She feels safer when _I’m_ with her,” he boasted jokily.  
  
Arthur chuckled to himself until he felt Linnet tighten her grasp on his hand. He looked down into Linnet’s deep-coloured eyes as she said, “I feel safer too.”  
  
It was moments like this when Linnet demonstrated an absolute and unshakeable faith in him that Arthur felt proud to be a father. He had once had unshakeable faith in his father too, a faith that was slowly shattered by his actions. Arthur was determined never to do anything that would budge Linnet’s confidence in him.  
  
If Linnet (and her mother) stopped having faith in him, he would shrivel up and die.  
  
He swung his arm with Linnet’s softly and led her on through the forest.  
  
“Not far from camp now,” he declared. “And once we’re back there, your mother can show you how to light a fire.”


End file.
